


wait until the wind changes

by sweetbun_trio



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Bonding with a cat, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd Needs a Hug, Gen, Gronder Field references/spoilers, Monastery cats, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:15:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24762187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetbun_trio/pseuds/sweetbun_trio
Summary: Dimitri’s cape rustles as he rounds on whomever had dared to disturb him. He’d taken up his usual post in the broken cathedral. His mind is always a bit quieter there, in the hollow silence. The voices are calmer when the others aren’t trying to persuade him from his goals.“Go away!” he growls. But it’s not Felix coming back to glare at him, or Byleth there to stare at him, or Mercedes to try to talk to him, or anyone. It’s just a little cat.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 64
Collections: FE3H Kink Meme





	wait until the wind changes

**Author's Note:**

> For the FE3H Kinkmeme prompt: 
> 
> A monastery cat gets attached to Dimitri while he's still feral and he ends up bonding with it. I just want Feral and Post Feral Dimitri being soft with cats.

Dimitri’s cape rustles as he rounds on whomever had dared to disturb him. He’d taken up his usual post in the broken cathedral. His mind is always a bit quieter there, in the hollow silence. The voices are calmer when the others aren’t trying to persuade him from his goals. 

“Go away!” he growls. But it’s not Felix coming back to glare at him, or Byleth there to stare at him, or Mercedes to try to talk to him, or anyone. It’s just a little cat.

The cat is mottled tan and gray and looks really dusty and dirty, or maybe its fur is just the color of dirt and dust, Dimitri cannot tell.

“Hmmph,” he huffs and turns back around to stare at the broken stained glass and the rubble.

He’s tired, so tired, but he doesn’t deserve to rest, can’t rest, not until he has Edelgard’s head.

*

The cat won’t stop following him. Even when he’s not in the cathedral, it trails behind him. Whenever he stops moving he looks down at it, and it’s there, looking back up at him from olive green eyes.

He eventually slumps onto a pew, exhausted after hours of pacing. The cat jumps up onto the pew beside him, studying him, and then proceeds to climb up onto his shoulder. It buries itself into his heavy fur mantle, kneading prickly paws into his neck. 

Dimitri cranes his neck to look at it, but it’s on his blind side and he can’t really see. It rubs its face on the back of his head, slinking over to his left side where he can see. 

It’s ear is missing a notch. He reaches out very carefully to pet its little head, not wanting to hurt the cat accidentally. Dimitri scratches behind the cat’s ears and feels it start to purr.

*

Dimitri drags himself into the cathedral once more. The rain continues to fall softly over Garreg Mach. He’s just spoken with Byleth. She’d intercepted him, on his way to gather what supplies he could and make a break for Enbarr on his own, everyone and everything else be damned. 

He hears a small chirp, and it’s the cat again. It...she? He thinks it’s a she... She rubs against his legs, still bound up in his greaves. He can’t remember the last time he took them off, nor his gauntlets, nor any of his body armor, for that matter. 

The voices bite back at these thoughts, telling him he cannot, he does not deserve rest or comfort. What he had told Byleth was true, the dead and their voices would linger on in his mind. 

Dimitri was grateful that Rodrigue’s voice had not joined them. Rodrigue had not died with regret. 

A sob rips from his throat, and Dimitri suddenly feels suffocated. He tears at his gauntlets, pulling them off and throwing them down. This is his challenge to himself: forgive himself and live for what he believes in. Atone. 

The cat jumps at the clatter, but still, slowly begins to creep back toward him. She’s wary, but not giving up.

He stares at his hands, ugly with reddish burn scars. He hasn’t bared them to anyone in years. 

Dimitri lowers himself to the floor, eyes burning with unshed tears. The cat comes right to him and he feels her fur for the first time, and can feel that she’s not that dirty after all.

*

The next time he sees the cat, he’s prepared. 

Dimitri slides his gloves off and tucks them away, exchanging them for the bits of fish he saved for her. He kneels down and she places a paw on his wrist, her little nose quivering with the scent of fish. 

He has learned that the distinctive pattern of her fur is that of a Varleyion. And although the thought of her namesake falling at Gronder by his hand fills him with guilt, he’s named her Bernadetta.

He will atone, and see this war through, so that no more innocents must die.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Twitter @sweetbun_trio


End file.
